Pbenjay's Blog

Apparently a Mennonite code to live by or so we are led to believe in one hilarious instance and anecdote after another during the new to Broadway one woman show Everyday Rapture. Quite a week of ups and downs – from Teary Tuesday at the movies to Whoop it up Wednesday at the American Airlines theater on Broadway.  I went to see Everyday Rapture on Wednesday evening, the one woman show by Sherie Rene Scott.  Well not exactly one woman since she has two bodacious girls singing backup and a small band and one wild and crazy guy who appears towards the end of this 90 minute monologue marathon.

Sheri grew up as a half-Mennonite which is a living dichotomy and possibly explains her erratic, ecstatic, somber and solemn soliloquies, her energizer bunny hopping around the stage and her part Bollywood, part Saturday Night Fever dance routines.  She is SO HIGH ENERGY!  And funny!!! The audience was laughing and applauding the parodies and the autobiographical flashbacks into her life.  As a youth struggling with the rigorous restrictions imposed by the Mennonite faith, Sheri was truly torn between two lovers!  She refers to Jesus as her one true love but then admits to Judy Garland idolatry.  She sang heavenly hymns in the choir and lip synced heavenly songs in Judy style.  She and her favorite cousin, Jerome both loved Judy Garland, she because she always wanted to sing and he, well because we begin to suspect early on what is and what was not said but what was heavily implied. Poor Jerome, his lifestyle did not fit into the Mennonite world not even if he had been half-Mennonite.

Rumspringa is that special time in the adolescent life of a young Mennonite when he or she is allowed a little more freedom, a time to experiment with the English (as the outside world is known to them) and a time to sow a few oats before as an adult you will have chosen to be baptized into the community. You must do so with free will because they don’t want you if you don’t want them and just to prove that point, should a young Mennonite decide to leave their community, that person will be shunned by everyone even their family.  Rumspringa is usually not more than a year but as in Sheri’s case, an extension has been granted and she figures she has had about 20 years of extensions and has been celebrating Rumspringa ever since!!

Prepare for the Rapture!  Are you ready for the Rapture? If you can take an evening off from preparing or if you are all packed and ready to ascend into heaven leaving the rest of us behind, why not toodle over to Broadway and witness Everyday Rapture for yourself.

Everyday Rapture is the story of a young woman’s psycho-sexual-spiritual journey on the rocky path that separates her mostly Mennonite past from her mostly Manhattan future. With a cast led by Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture also features songs made famous by David Byrne, Roberta Flack, Mister Rogers, The Supremes, and Judy Garland.
April 19 – July 11, 2010

Packed My Trunk for Rumspringa